In this invigorating recollection of an era when airplane travel was new and glamorous, and test pilots were daredevils and role models, Wallick explores her father’s career as a test pilot for Boeing stretching from the ’40s well into the ’80s. She recounts her own life and experiences as a family member, usually on the periphery of the action and sometimes along for the actual ride. Likewise, she includes the experiences, stories, and escapades of her father’s colleagues to paint a larger picture of the industry and its evolution. From the early 707, Boeing’s first commercial jet airliner, to the 747, from military airplanes to civilian aircraft, Wallick’s father, former U.S. Navy aviator Lew Wallick, flies them all, often risking life and limb, and the author brings those stories to life. She writes of pilots’ playful tendencies to roll their craft in midair—no easy task with commercial jets—and of Howard Hughes’s eccentric, unpredictable participation. For anyone interested in this period or the faded mystique of the early jet age, it’s a great resource. However, Wallick writes from the odd perspective of an outsider blessed with insider knowledge, dispensing vast amounts of technical jargon and model numbers in a dry manner, occasionally turning a delightful history into something more narrow and tedious. (BookLife)